Hope

Chapter Twelve: The Silent Village

When we first saw the forest, my first thought was that it seemed a lot like the forest I was used to living in. It had pine trees and tall, majestic trees with bright red wood. There were even stranger trees that had wood so dark that it was almost black, but they weren't burnt. I pointed those out to Tasha and she said that they were a very rare kind of tree commonly known as 'ash trees' and I shouldn't get them confused with the deciduous kind. Since I didn't know what deciduous meant, I decided that I wouldn't get confused and I resumed my study of the forest.

Jing leaned over and whispered, "See those tall trees with the red bark? Those are redwood trees. I've never seen one before. They only grow in the kingdom of Lyssia and part of the Wildlands, and even then they only grow on the coast."

"I didn't know that," I said. "What are they good for?"

Jing shrugged. "They don't rot easily. The wood's pretty soft, though. And some varieties are very fire-resistant. And cold-resistant. They can be useful if you have something particular in mind and you know how to use it."

We were soon forced to abandon the wagon once we entered the woods. There wasn't a trail that was wide enough to allow the wagon to pass and none of us wanted to waste any time chopping wood. Tasha was quite upset about it, but Zack reassured her that she could come back for it if it were disguised so no one would see it and run off with it. Stan was grumbling about why we didn't just stay in town and find a job like we always did. Tasha snapped back at him and informed him that if we ever wanted anything to change, we would have to act now while we were all still alive and breathing. I gave Jing a questioning glance and she just shrugged.

"Stress," she whispered. I felt inclined to agree with her.

Zack was leading the way, looking back every so often to see if we were following. Occasionally, he would touch a hand to a tree and stand still as if listening to the tree itself. Then he would take his hand off casually and move on like he wasn't doing anything unusual. He had removed his hat since he didn't need it anymore, but every time he turned his head so his ears showed, Jing flinched like she had been physically slapped. His revelation had struck her deeply, deeper than I had first thought. I found myself wishing that she could just forget the whole thing and they could just get together again, but I knew it wouldn't be that easy. After all, when my father got a nasty surprise from my mother, they never reconciled.

A memory then reached the surface. I resisted, but it forced its way to the forefront of my mind, whether I liked it or not.

I was standing in a battle line, waiting for Shadeclaw to give the order to attack. He was standing somewhere above us, I knew. I always knew somehow. He liked hiding in the shadows and currently wasn't visible for cat-shifter eyes to see. I looked to my left and saw my mentor Talonwing. He was coolly examining his grey-bladed warrior's knife, testing the edge and making sure it was sharp. I looked to my right and saw my brother, Smokesky. He had recently been named and was fiddling with the leather belt that held his warrior's knife. There was a worried look in his sky blue eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" I whispered.

"Mother," Smokesky mouthed back.

I shuddered. I remembered the huge fight that Kinktail and Shadeclaw had last night. They had been yowling and screaming at each other well past midnight. They had argued before, but this was different. Kinktail had directly challenged Shadeclaw, calling his methods 'bloodthirsty and wasteful'. And Shadeclaw had gotten very angry.

I looked down the battle line, hoping to catch sight of my mother. I spotted her at the very center of the line where a highly experienced warrior like Talonwing was normally placed. I knew that Kinktail was a great strategist, but she was no fighter. And she was the second-in-command to boot. She shouldn't be risked like that. Was Shadeclaw trying to kill her?